We went to church together for years, but did not begin our friendship until 2015. We had a big group of friends who always hung out and did things together. One Sunday, we were sitting next to one another in church and our friends asked Jacob after seeing this what he thought about Kaylee. Jacob shrugged this off as Kaylee was just a friend. Then, one friend stated, "Give it a week." Within just a few days, Jacob had fallen pretty hard. During these days, unknown to Kaylee, she had sent Jacob devotionals to encourage him throughout the week because she heard he had been having a hard time. That is when Jacob decided to ask Kaylee out.

When thinking about how to ask Kaylee out, Jacob wanted to make it meaningful and special for Kaylee, so he began to think about what would achieve this. He decided on writing her a letter. If you know anything about Kaylee, you know how much she loves writing letters to other people. Jacob wanted to make her feel as loved as she makes other people feel. He gave her the letter before hanging out with friends one night and told her not to open it. Not thinking about getting a letter from a friend, Kaylee simply threw this letter in her car.

After arriving at home that night, Kaylee dug the letter out of the backseat of her car and placed in behind the pages she was going to read in her book for the night, Redeeming Love. Kaylee finished reading her pages, having taken an hour since she had arrived home, and then finally opened the letter to read from Jacob. Kaylee was speechless because all she had ever considered Jacob was a friend. She immediately sought the counsel of friends and then realized that Jacob had been waiting for over an hour and a half. She decided that she was not going to make such a hard decision at 11:00 at night, so she responded to Jacob with the cliche response of "I need to pray about it." Kaylee genuinely did want to pray earnestly about it, but Jacob took this as a sign of doom that he had effectively screwed up his friendship with Kaylee. However, it did not take Kaylee more than a day to realize that Jacob was exactly what the Lord had in store for her.

Kaylee went and hung out with her friend, Katie, the morning of the first date. She helped her with her makeup and hair and made sure she was mentally and spiritually ready for the upcoming date. Meanwhile, Jacob was preparing a notes list of questions he wanted to ask Kaylee on this date. When the time came, Jacob showed up to Kaylee's house, flowers in hand, and unintentionally dressed to match Kaylee. He came in, shook hands with her father, and promised to have her home safely later that night. We then began our date by going to Brixx wood-fired pizza for dinner. Here, Jacob's first question upon settling in was for Kaylee to tell him her testimony. Along the course of these questions, a lot of nervousness was present, but there was a clear peace in the space.

After eating tons of pizza and breadsticks, Kaylee and Jacob went to see a very romantic movie. Jurassic World 2. Kaylee could not tell you anything that happened from that movie because of how happy she was. After the movie, Jacob took her home, walked her to her front door, and hugged her goodnight. A perfect gentleman. Kaylee went inside feeling reminded of the goodness of God in her life and giddy for the next chapter she was about to embark on. Jacob drove home excited and feeling blessed of all that the Lord was working in and through him.

The story of our engagement begins on Thanksgiving of 2022. Jacob knew that he wanted to marry Kaylee for a while, but he wanted it to be as perfect as it could be for her. Jacob began talking to his family about the ring and his Grammy got in touch with him about her engagement ring. She wanted Jacob to have the ring so he could propose to Kaylee. Jacob began to try and find out Kaylee's ring size inconspicuously. Needless to say, he was successful. Once the ring was re-sized, Jacob began trying to find the best time to propose. He knew that it would probably have to wait until after they both graduated as to not stress either of them out. He decided on May 19th, 2023.

In preparation of this day, he asked several of her friends to write letters to Kaylee for her to read on the months leading up to the wedding. He then, created a diagram of where everyone would stand and what month til the wedding they would write. Jacob invited both of their families and friends to a small party to be held after the proposal. He talked with some of Kaylee's friends and got them to convince her she needed a girls night. Then, the day came. Kaylee spent the whole day with Jacob eating a great breakfast at Biscuit Belly in Hoover, painting mugs at Do It Yourself Crafts in Homewood, and then going for a walk around Star Lake in Bluff Park. Jacob then told Kaylee to go on home and start getting ready for her girls night. Jacob then immediately drove to Gardendale First Baptist Church's South Campus to begin setting up. Kaylee began getting ready and having some free time, she read 1 Corinthians 12-13. It just reminded her that our giftings that we receive in life are counted as nothing without the way of love. The last verse in the chapter is what stuck with her as it said, "And I will show you a still more excellent way."

Then, she left for "girls night." Her friend, Katie, called her on the way just to throw her off the trail and really to make sure she didn't check anyone's location. When she arrived, her friend Morgan asked her to come inside to look at something for the student ministry. They went and talked with their friend, Julia, and then went to find their other friends, Hope and Aaliyah. Morgan informed Kaylee that they were over in the Sanctuary getting something and that they needed to go find them. When they opened the doors to the hallway of the Sanctuary, Kaylee saw her friends lining the hallway with letters and was confused at first, but as soon as she saw her friends standing there crying, she knew what was going on and began crying. As she made her way down the hallway, she hugged each friend, and met Jacob who was holding a "Day of Our Wedding" letter. We entered into the Sanctuary where Jacob read Proverbs 31, told Kaylee how long he had waited for this day, and how perfect of a wife she was going to be as he bent down on one knee and asked Kaylee to marry him. They shared a dance to "Forever Like That" by Ben Rector and then joined their friends and family for a small party to celebrate their next chapter. After almost 12 years of knowing one another, 8 years of friendship, and almost 5 years of dating, Kaylee and Jacob were getting married!